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Philadelphia Museum of Art Handbook (2014 Edition)

The sinuous lines and sumptuous carving of this mahogany card table, which is one of a pair, demonstrate the capability of colonial Philadelphia furniture makers and carvers to match or even exceed the quality of similar pieces made in London. Trained in his native Scotland, cabinetmaker Thomas Affleck oversaw the production of furniture commissioned for the lavish Philadelphia house of merchant John Cadwalader and his wife, Elizabeth Lloyd, whose portrait by Charles Willson Peale is in the Museum’s collection. The table’s Rococo-style carved ornament, including the boldly articulated hairy-paw feet, was designed to complement its commode, or curved, profile and echo the elaborate woodwork in the Cadwaladers’ house. Alexandra Kirtley, from Philadelphia Museum of Art: Handbook. Philadelphia: Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2014, p. 266.

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